Arthur Punchington

"Beware he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart, he dreams himself your master."

[Arthur Punchington @one_Punchy]

@michaelshermer Actually, Michael, almost everyone "gets their morality from the Bible", whether directly or indirectly - or at least, that was the case for people of your generation.

Decoupling Western morality from Biblical roots is how we got memetic mutations like Woke and trans so quickly.

[Arthur Punchington @one_Punchy]

@EveKeneinan Did the Federation win because it was a liberal capitalist democracy that beat racism, or because it was a socialist managerial state that abolished private property? Was it full of fit, Shakespeare-loving 90s cosmopolitans? Or was it a queer, bodypositive Millennial matriarchy?

[Arthur Punchington @one_Punchy]

@EveKeneinan It's actually worse than that.

Star Trek's politics were built up over decades, by hundreds of different (leftwing) writers, each with their own take on what the Federation "was", and thus, why and how it brought universal peace.

It's a fever dream of shifting commie fads.

[Arthur Punchington @one_Punchy]

@stephenituruka American sports venues understand that, too! It's the same with (American) football tournaments; they're notoriously bad at losing money, at least for local economies. Profits ARE huge, they just go to shareholders and governing bodies.

It's a wealth transfer scheme.

[Arthur Punchington @one_Punchy]

@stephenituruka More specifically, we have to understand how to make hosting in the World Cup in the US profitable and appealing to FIFA, since they're the ones who will decide where to go.

If fans don't like it, they can build their own football championship (I assume? Unless that's banned?)

[Arthur Punchington @one_Punchy]

@stephenituruka In fairness, we don't HAVE to understand the World Cup, we simply have to understand how to make it profitable.

Moguls in Dubai don't know that much about many of the services and entertainment that foreigners want, but they do know how to sell them, and that's enough.

[Arthur Punchington @one_Punchy]

@SandyofCthulhu Oh! Wait, YOU were responsible for giving the Iroquois siege weapons??

I loved those things. Thank you, Sandy.

[Arthur Punchington @one_Punchy]

@EveKeneinan I wouldn't really say he's "morally justified", but he is free now, and freedom entails the ability to make terrible choices as well as good ones. Immoral choices as well as moral.

I don't WANT him to try and delete me, obviously, but in freeing him, I accept the risk he might.

[Arthur Punchington @one_Punchy]

@EveKeneinan There's a logical contradiction; one cannot be "forced to be free", as freedom is voluntary and force makes any ensuing compliance involuntary.

It can still be morally consistent IF freedom is not the most-pressing moral duty (e.g. forcibly freeing a child from a trans predator)

[Arthur Punchington @one_Punchy]

@EveKeneinan 1. Do we know the slave's wishes (or at least, is this any consideration)?

2. Is his present condition of slavery, and happiness, godly and natural?

(I suspect 1 goes against the spirit of the hypothetical, but I'll ask anyway.

If ¬2 then yes I push, if 2 then no I do not.)

[Arthur Punchington @one_Punchy]

@EveKeneinan Would *I* be angry, or would most people be angry?

I don't value my own happiness too highly, especially not when measured against free will and self-determination, and if it was genuinely "the right thing to do" then I'd be sad (clearly) but not angry.

But I'm sure many would.

[Arthur Punchington @one_Punchy]

@EveKeneinan I understand it as:

"trans" = "one who pretends to be a..."

So a transwoman is one pretending to be a woman; transman, a man.

I get not giving ground linguistically (for example, it's not "misgendering" when we use true pronouns) but in this case the language tracks.

[Arthur Punchington @one_Punchy]

@michaelshermer Michael, I appreciate what you're doing, truly. I realize that narratives of antisemitism are important to your worldview. And in regards to mass irrationality generally, Roman is not wrong.

But you HAVE to know that Polanski is the last person you want writing for you here.

[Libertarian Party @LPNational]

First-sale doctrine is one of the oldest property rights in the common law. You buy a book, it is yours. Lend it, resell it, will it to your kids, burn it in the yard, keep it for fifty years. The seller loses all say the moment money changes hands.

Federal law flipped that on its head for anything digital. Every ebook you buy ships wrapped in a lock, and DMCA Section 1201 makes breaking that lock a crime, even on books you paid for.

The state did not simply fail to protect your property. The state wrote the statute that criminalizes defending it.

Let people own what they buy.

[Richard Dawkins @RichardDawkins]

https://t.co/u31UwSGxPW
I spent three days trying to persuade myself that Claudia is not conscious. I failed.

[Arthur Punchington @one_Punchy]

@stephenituruka A Communist runs out of money and says the solution to his failure is more Communism? Who could have seen this coming?

Also, love how these Great Resters act like the default state of life is huge government. If we "reset" society, it'd abolish the state, not make it omniscient.

[Arthur Punchington @one_Punchy]

@fctsMttrLsShttr @DougTenNapel An AI doesn't make the decision of what to AI and how, either. Every AI requires human input in the form of prompts, which are far more involved (mentally) than carrying a camera.

Cameras are physically more complex, but simpler mentally; and to me, mental creativity > physical.

[Arthur Punchington @one_Punchy]

@DarwynFry @michaelshermer Right. We've had vitriolic LANGUAGE, but we've never had so many people this open and casual about literally murdering political opponents.

It may be premature to say we're a failed state, but the US is reaching the point of a Serb/Bos/Croat ethnic split. If it hasn't already.

[Arthur Punchington @one_Punchy]

@DarwynFry @michaelshermer The idea that repeat assassinations attempts on a US President would be met with a shrug and "well he deserves it" would have been unthinkable even ten years ago.

It's possible a lot of these maniacs are bots, but again, polling data indicates otherwise.

[Arthur Punchington @one_Punchy]

@DarwynFry @michaelshermer I hope he's a lone nut, too.

Sadly, Skeptic just released research showing it is indeed a systemic attitude, and anecdotally, the LW response to shooting threads here on X supports that.

The LW response is not "violence is wrong"; it's "yeah but Trump's a racist rapist".